Meeting you again
by Chika-nyan
Summary: When Luka was little, a boy with purple hair confessed to her before moving away saying, "I promise I'll come back." Years later Luka is still holding onto his words. The boy, who became a member of a band sometime after moving, is finally coming back. Rewrite of my first fanfic.
1. Distant Memories and New Friends

**Hello again~! Chika-nyan here! I'm happy to be bringing this back. I may or may not complete this, I don't know what my future looks like yet, but I'm going to be working hard to keep this alive this time! To old readers, thanks for having hope~ (and I'm sorry if you wanted me to continue the original.) To new ones, welcome~. To old and new ones, I hope you enjoy this, but I can guarantee nothing for you. 8'D Pleasedon'tthrowstuffatme. I accept critiques, not flames. Do not hunt me down if you don't like my pairings or my story~. Thankies~. **

**Warning you in advance about some couples: Luka x Gakupo, Rin x Len, Miki x Piko, Miku x Mikuo, etc. I'll list a few others in later chapters.**

**Don't like, don't read. I don't want you to flame any couples in a review because that has nothing to do with content.**

**Lulu: Obvious Disclaimer: Chika owns nothing but this story. Characters portrayed are obviously not hers... and obviously badly portrayed.**

**(~ o u o)~ On we go!**

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**Luka POV**

_Back and forth, back and forth… the swing set let out a small groan with each motion. For how long they were like this no one really knows, this playground was there for a long time and was like this since I was born. I lightly kicked my feet and let out a small sigh._

"_You're quiet today," I said, turning to my neighbor on the swing set._

"_Am I? I didn't notice!" the purple-haired boy responded, letting out a small laugh._

_We sat in silence for a while longer. It was a cold winter day and the park was littered with glistening white snow. We were covered in layers of clothing, a large jacket, a beanie, and a scarf topping off our ensembles. I blew on my hands and rubbed them together to warm them a bit and watched white wisps float up. Why had we come here again? It was unlike him to suddenly call me out like this, he'd always go through his parents then my parents… but today he showed up on my doorstep carrying a box and told me to follow him._

_My eyes flitted over to the box. It was wrapped in pink wrapping paper and decorated with a purple ribbon. Christmas had already passed and my birthday was still a few weeks away so it couldn't be a present for me… right? I didn't quite understand._

"_You know…" I jumped slightly as the purple-haired boy broke the silence, "I'm moving away in a few days… so I figured I'd give you your birthday present in advance."_

_Maybe he thought I would start yelling or something or maybe start asking a bunch of questions that would make him feel bad like, "Why're you moving? Do you not like me anymore?" because he stayed quiet, waiting for whatever reaction I would have._

"…_Is that so?" I mumbled in response, turning my attention to the cloud covered sky._

_Maybe he expected more of a reaction because his expression became downcast and he gave a sad sounding attempt at a laugh before nodding._

"_Yeah, and I figured that… before I leave I might as well tell you all the stuff I couldn't before too," he mumbled, "Like how I've always loved you, and how I want to be your boyfriend... and maybe marry you one day…"_

_My eyes fell upon the boy again, his face was red and his hands were shaking… it was strange to see a spectacle like this. Since the day I first met him he was loud and energetic, at some points one might've been able to call him things like "annoying" but… he was fun. Though I didn't show it as much as other people, I always was happy with him._

"_I see…" I responded, watching his expression fall, his back starting to slouch as he waited for the inevitable outcome he had pictured, "you'll probably be busy with packing in the next few days so I guess our first date will have to wait until you get back."_

_The boy perked up, his eyes wide. He was quite obviously surprised by this outcome. His expressions changed quickly from shocked to happy to confused. He probably wondered if I was pulling his leg or something, but I meant what I said. The truth was I liked him too… though probably not to the extent he liked me, at least, not yet. He still didn't seem to register what I said though, opening and closing his mouth as if to say something. I sighed._

"_I like you too, idiot," I stated simply, clarifying things for him._

_He turned his attention to his shoes then started shaking and, before I could ask if he was alright, he jumped off his swing and hugged me._

"_Luka-chan!" he cried, "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you lots! I promise I'll come back!"_

_I giggled and hugged him back. Why not? It would probably be a long time before I saw him again, I mean, we're only kids, what could we do? He released me a little afterward, handing me the box he'd set atop a large pile of snow right next to the swing set._

"_Don't open it until your birthday, okay?" he insisted, "I'm not going to be here for it, but it's better to do it on the day it was supposed to be given."_

"_Alright, alright," I replied, waving my hand at him as if to tell him to stop nagging me, "thanks… I'll miss you."_

"_What was that?" he asked, eyes shining._

_I wouldn't give him the satisfaction though, no, instead I would just stick my tongue out at him and laugh. At that, he started pestering me, asking me to tell him, desperately trying to hear those words again, but I denied him._

"_How about I tell you when you get back?" I offered, but the boy didn't seem happy with that deal._

_Amidst the loud, energetic chatter I heard a ringing. I stopped for a second, but the boy continued to talk. The ringing got louder, but the boy still didn't notice. I pondered the noise as the world faded before my eyes and then… _

I slammed my hand down on an alarm clock as I was rudely brought back to reality yet again. I looked at the alarm clock. It was relatively early so I had plenty of time to get ready, but starting earlier would make things easier so I decided to do that. I sat up then proceeded to yawn and stretch before getting out of bed and grabbing my new high school uniform along with a fresh pair of… undergarments and walking down the hall to take a shower.

Feeling the water trickle down my skin, I thought back to my dream. That dream would pop up without fail once a year every year, near my birthday. This year seemed to be an odd exception though, this was the second time this year and it was already April, my birthday was in January. It was strange. Though, maybe the strangest thing was that I hadn't forgotten that promise of having a date with that boy despite it having been a little over 9 years since that happened and his name had already slipped my mind in that time period. Well… it didn't do much to think too much about it right now.

I finished my shower, dried myself off, then slipped on my undergarments followed by my uniform and headed toward the kitchen. Upon arrival I notice a note on the refrigerator door.

"Good morning! Sorry, Mom and Dad have work today so we can't wish you good luck on your first day of high school in person… I left you a bento on the counter and breakfast is on the table. Have fun, alright? –Mom"

I first directed my attention to the counter where my bento rested then to the table where I could see a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, a plate of various greens with two sausages and two other small pieces of meat, and a glass of water. I grabbed my bento and set it down next to my breakfast then started eating.

My cell phone rung and I checked the display. It was another message from a certain green-haired girl.

"Yo, ninja girl, what're you up to? Aren't these uniforms adorable? I feel like walking through our middle school with this on and showing all the girls my elite Crypton High uniform~ (＾ω＾)ノ"

"Still surprised you passed the exams."

"Whaaaat! Now that hurts. Apologize to my awesome, gleaming pride. 。・°°・(＞_＜)・°°・。"

"I was just kidding."

"Mail me with more emotion! (＞人＜;)"

"I think this is enough emotion though."

"Ice queen! Weird kunoichi, shinobi, whatever you're called ninja lady! 。・゜・(ノД`)・゜・。"

"I've known you since we were little. I think I can tell when you're messing with me or faking or whatever works for you. What'd you really want to talk about?"

"Oh poopy, fine, fine… Congrats to us both for passing~! I hope we're in the same class like always! (=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)"

"I hope so too, who else will watch you with your weird quirks and tendency to play matchmaker or grab onto people that don't want to be grabbed onto? I bet I can narrow it down to 5 students in only 1 min."

"Ugh, not again! My matchmaking is flaaaaaawless! I mean, Teto and Ted got married, right, right? （ゝ。∂）"

"I don't have time to discuss this with you, I'm eating."

"Whut? C'mon, Really, I'm the best-"

I place the phone on the table and ignore the long explanation and recap of Gumi's previous set-ups that I'd already heard before and finish my breakfast then place the plates and bowls in the sink. Then I grab my bag from my room then my cell phone from the table and head out the door.

"Luka!" Gumi yelled as soon as I opened the door, "Ready?"

I gave her a sheepish look and she grinned at me. She probably concluded her explanation with a, "By the way, I'm going to pick you up!" or something, but I didn't even attempt to read it.

"Yeah, sure," I responded.

"Aw, c'mon, be more loud and energetic! Show some spirit! Let's go Crypton!" Gumi yelled, continuing on with a variety of other phrases having to do with having more energy and being proud to be in an awesome school.

"You put too much sugar in something again, didn't you?" I asked as I started walking in the direction of our school.

"…Just in the tea. That was it, I swear," Gumi said, holding her hand above her heart as if that gave it more meaning. After a long, untrusting look in her direction she admitted to adding sugar to everything she ate this morning.

"What, my mom can't cook and my dad doesn't feel like telling her she can't cook…" Gumi grumbled after I scolded her.

"Then eat cereal or cook up some pancakes or toast some toast… it's not like you can't do anything!" I chided, "I don't feel like hearing about a 1st year running around like a crazy woman pushing people down stairs or something because she wanted to play matchmaker and was too hyper to think about what she was doing."

"Aw, c'mon… that only happened once…" Gumi argued.

"Twice," I corrected, "both happened when you were filled with sugar and someone went to the hospital once because of it."

"Fine, I'll work on it!" Gumi mumbled, obviously pouting.

After a while Gumi started to talk again, the conversation from before forgotten as her hyper mind chose one topic after another to talk about, leaving little space for any silence. We chatted about random things all the way up to the school and the bulletin board where our classes would be listed.

"No!" Gumi yelled, "No, no, no, no, no, no!"

My face paled. We were in different classes. Gumi would no doubt be causing trouble. She would always get worked up when she had no friends in class. That combined with sugar never helped.

"Lu-chan!" Gumi cried, dramatically clinging to my waist, "They're trying to say it's not meant to be! We're like… Romeo and Juliet and the teachers are like our families and they decided to pull us apart! Come with me, Juliet, don't let them take you from me!"

I let a little chuckle escape my lips at her theatrics and the bunch of romantic nonsense she threw my way. Of course she would try to reference a romance story of some kind; she'd been like that since we were kids, even before she knew who the heck Romeo and Juliet were.

"Don't worry, Romeo, we'll rendezvous at lunch," I said, going along with her charade and patting her head.

"I'll miss you, baby…" she mumbled into my waist, using fake tears to add to the drama. People were starting to stare at us weirdly as they walked by.

"…You do know we have to attend the entrance ceremony still, right?" I asked and Gumi shot up.

"Ah, you're right! Darling, let us make haste to the rows of people! Come, my love!" she said, as she skipped off in the direction of where we were directed to go and where we would have gone first if Gumi weren't so eager to see if we were in the same class or not. Of course, I followed behind.

Seating, teacher introduction, principal introduction, speech from the best person in our class, etc., it was the same as any other entrance ceremony, even similar to the one we'd had in middle school. Long story short, it was just an average ceremony, nothing special, and nothing to bore you with. After it was over we left the gym and headed out for class.

"Luka, don't leave me! You're my beautiful pink-haired Juliet~!" Gumi cried as I dropped her off at her classroom and watched as a poor student had to pry her from the door to get in. I heard her crying, "Baby come back~!" as I headed for my own class.

As I entered the room, I took a look around. I didn't really know anyone in this class either. I did see a girl named Neru that I recognized from middle school in Gumi's class, but I didn't really know a single face in here. Oh well, I didn't mind, friends could always be made later.

I checked the seating chart on the board and quickly found my seat. I was pretty pleased with it because it was a coveted window seat after all. The spring breeze that drifted in felt nice and I had good view of the blooming cherry blossoms.

The bell rang and classes started bringing a bunch of introductions, a bunch of reviews, and other effortless things. It was a somewhat lazy day and it was very much appreciated by the students who were still mentally on their break. I watched a lucky cherry blossom make its way past the window to land on my desk. It seemed like a good day…

After a while the bell to release us for lunch rang and everyone went about their own business. I got up, almost bumping into someone behind me.

"Ah, I'm sorry," I said giving a slight bow.

"Eh, ah, no, it's cool, don't worry about it!" a blond-haired girl, presumably the one I bumped into, responded, giving a submissive wave of her hand. "I mean, I wasn't looking either."

"Rin-chan!" someone called, catching the girl's attention.

"Ah, well, sorry, gotta go, see ya!" she said, waving at me as she headed out toward a girl with crimson hair.

I waved back then headed to the doorway, half expecting to see Gumi already waiting there only to find no such green-haired girl standing there. This left only one other scenario. Sure enough, when I made it to her class she was clinging to a white-haired boy who seemed rather uncomfortable.

"Ah, Luka! Guess what! This is Utatane Piko! He's my new friend!" she yelled as soon as she saw me.

I shook my head and attempted to pull her off of the boy, but she had him trapped in that death grip of hers.

"Piko-tan and I are friends!" she grumbled and I kept trying to pull her off.

"Gumi, stop scaring people," I gritted out.

It took 5 minutes to pry Gumi off of Piko and a few more to drag her out of the classroom by her shirt collar along with an extra minute used to recapture her as she managed to escape.

"Piko-tan, don't forget me~!" she cried as I finally managed to close the door behind her.

"Geez, Romeo, what part of rendezvous at lunch didn't you understand, were you cheating on me?" I joked, flicking Gumi on the forehead.

"Ah, my dear Juliet, fear not, there can only be one of you!" she said dramatically, pretending to kiss the back of my hand.

"Seriously though, don't cause trouble for others," I scolded.

"Yeah, yeah, my lady…" she mumbled, "so, where're we going for lunch?"

"How about the roof?" I suggested, "I feel like there will less people for you to terrorize up there."

"Sounds fun!" Gumi replied, attempting to skip ahead, but then noticing I had a grip on her arm, "Er…"

"Sugar, stairs, matchmaking, no," I responded.

"…Dang it."

We made it to the roof and as I opened the door I already knew that Gumi would be overjoyed. There were already four people sitting down on the roof. I recognized one from my class, the one I'd bumped into not long ago, the blond girl with blue eyes, Rin? Then there was the crimson-haired girl that called for her, her eyes a similar color to her hair. I had no idea who the other two were though, one was a girl, one was a boy, and both of them had teal hair and blue eyes, the girl had twin tails while the boy's hair was nothing very special. They seemed relatively close... and spacey, whoever they were.

"Ah-!" the crimson-haired girl exclaimed, "Hi there…"

"Oh, you're in my class!" Rin said, "Hiya!"

I smiled and waved, feeling Gumi already attempting to look over my shoulder to see who I was talking to.

"People!" Gumi squealed as she started to attempt moving me out of the doorway.

Well, it was inevitable by this point that she would meet these people. After all, if I pushed her back in and took her elsewhere she would still run over and open this door to see them. So I moved.

Gumi ran over and clung to the first person in sight, the crimson-haired girl who let out a yelp as it happened.

"Let's be friends!" she said.

"Sorry, she gets clingy like this after she's depraved of contact with her friends for more than 3 hours," I said, bowing my head slightly, "I found her latched onto Utatane Piko earlier…"

At this, Rin laughed, "Really? Hey, Miki, maybe you should try that~" she teased with a mischievous grin.

"R-R-Rin-chan!" the crimson-haired girl squeaked, "You know I couldn't possibly do that!"

"Ohohoho!" Gumi giggled, a familiar twinkle in her eye, "I see what's going on here~! You like Piko-tan, don't you, Miki-tan?"

The girl's face flushed to a shade redder than her hair. Gumi knew she hit the bullseye and looked to me with one of her usual, "Let's play cupid!" looks.

I nearly face palmed when the teal-haired girl spoke up, "Um, why don't we all introduce ourselves?" she suggested with a smile, "I'll go first! I'm Hatsune Miku and this guy's Hatsune Mikuo~. Ah, no relation! We just coincidentally look like each other and share the same surname!"

The boy, Mikuo nodded his head and let a big smile make its way onto his face as he put his arm around Miku's shoulders, making her blush.

The crimson-haired girl smiled awkwardly, still flustered and obviously not very comfortable with Gumi, "I'm Miki, feel free to call me whatever nickname you see fit… as long as it makes sense and isn't mean…"

"How about Mimi~?" Gumi asked, eyes shining bright, her heart set on that name.

"Sure," Miki replied.

"Yippee~" Gumi shouted. "I'm Gumi, queen of awesomeness!" she said in a proud, super confident, almost cocky tone, "and this girl with long, luscious, flowing pink hair is my friend Megurine Luka, my beautiful awesomeness princess!"

I bowed my head and Rin smiled. "I'm Kagamine Rin, I'm not anything as extraordinary as a queen of awesomeness, but I like to think of myself as some high figure in some weird monarchy of the orange kingdom. We should have negotiations to trade some oranges for some awesomeness."

"Agreed!" Gumi replied, writing a fake contract on paper.

Everyone laughed. We all had fun talking and playing around after we ate our lunches. Gumi and Rin acted out the alliance of the Orange Kingdom and Awesomeness Kingdom when the bell rang.

"Awww, just when we were getting to the good part…" Gumi whined, her eyes giving way to fake tears, "Do any or you guys have class 1-C?"

Miki hesitantly raised her hand and Gumi squealed with delight at the revelations that brought. The first one being she had class with one of our new friends, the next one being Miki and Piko were in the same class within her matchmaking reach. Her first target was certainly already locked onto. I simply watched as Gumi dragged Miki away to class, talking about normal girly things, all the while thinking about ways to get her and Piko together.

"Heh, is she always like that?" Rin asked me with an amused look.

"Basically," I replied.

"Hopefully, she can actually get those two together," she said with a smile, knowing what was obviously running through Gumi's mind even as she acted as the Queen of Awesomeness, that which had been on her mind as soon as she heard Miki liked Piko.

"It's more likely she'll embarrass them until they can't even look each other in the eye anymore though…" I muttered.

Rin burst out laughing and shrugged, whispering, "It's a possibility."

"Yeah…" I sighed.

I walked back to class with Rin, chatting about things and cultivating our new friendship. We made it to class and went back to our desks, sitting through the rest of the lessons and homeroom.

"Luka~ hey, listen to this!" Gumi started as we walked home, "You know, Miki and Piko look like such a good match! It's so adorable how they both look like they like each other but always avoid eye contact and all that~."

"Uh, okay?" I ask, not having seen what Gumi was talking about since I wasn't in her class.

"You'll find out later~!" she said, waving it off, "So, how's your love life?

"Same old, same old," I replied.

"So, you're still saving yourself for Eggplant Boy?" she asked.

"Yeah," I responded as I looked up at the sky.

"Boo, why'd he have to swoop in and do that before he left?" Gumi pouted, "I really wanted to try to use my skills to find you a guy… and he didn't even write you or anything!"

"I'm fine," I said, bonking her head, "he's coming back, he promised."

"He was like… 6 or 7, do you think he remembers? Like, you know… how you forgot his name?" Gumi pointed out.

"I'm not worried," I replied.

"You guys and your blind trust… alright, I get it…" she muttered in a begrudging way.

I patted her shoulder and smiled then said, "Don't worry, you'll be fine too."

She gave a chuckle and shrugged.

"Well, Princess, I have successfully escorted you home!" Gumi said, bowing as we arrived, "Good-bye, I shall see you tomorrow!"

She waved and left as I looked up at the sky. An airplane flew by on a course to the airport. Would it be strange to think that maybe soon one would be carrying the purple-haired boy with amethyst eyes and a carefree idiotic smile? I thought so, but I still made a wish to the blue sky as I walked into my house.

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**It lives again~! Updates are likely to be irregular because I put this story on a chapter every certain number of weeks and I rushed a lot when I first started. I hope this rewrite goes in a better direction. So, how was it? Did you enjoy it? Yes? No? Don't feel compelled to tell me, at least I tried. Thanks for reading this far~! I'll try to get out the next chapter when I can.**

**R & R for free popcorn! *throws digital popcorn in the air***


	2. Nostalgia and Reminiscense

**Woot, chapter 2! I was a bit busy for awhile so I didn't really know if I'd get this up before school started, but I made it! **

**Somehow, I wrote most of this early in the morning while listening to singing bishies (Starish, Quartet Night, Asahina bros., etc.) and I'm just kind of laughing at myself and wondering if my head was somewhere else when I was writing this chapter because of the random, weird, funny stuff in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it~**

** MizuneMinamiki: It's good to know that you enjoy this story! I don't really think my writing skills are that good... o/./o *hides* And I love those couples and I enjoy writing how Gumi acts, it's so fun~ xD **

** Serin Bloodriver: You guys flatter me too much. 8'D Gumi's always fun to write for~ I like doing loud characters that meddle. xD Ohohoho =u=+ Maybe~. **

** everdistant utopia: I had to send those emoticons to myself in an email 'cause I thought the Gumi I wrote would be the type to do that. xD **

** aza004: Oh wow, yeah, she actually may be crazier in this one 'cause people actually got injured by her matchmaking attempts. xD I plan to continue it, but updates will be kinda... irregular. **

**Thank you all for the reviews and for reading!**

**Disclaimer: Vocaloid doesn't belong to me at all~**

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**Gakupo PV**

I liked to think that I had a good childhood at one point. I had good friends, a girl I liked who apparently liked me back, and my parents would get along and let me do most of the things I wanted to, teasing me about my love for that certain girl. I had felt like I had a good childhood until my parents and I moved away from our hometown surrounded with fields and greenery to the city with its tall, monochrome buildings. It was there that my parents fought, where I lost my say in anything, where the only friends I managed to make were ones that would have no qualm leaving me behind if I wasn't going to do what they wanted me to. It was there the happiness I had felt before started to crumble and I started to suffocate.

At the age of 10 I ran away from home while my parents were at work. I ran down the long streets, almost finding myself lost due to the lack of life and individuality in the conforming city. On one such street I met two boys, one with blond hair and one with blue hair. They ushered me into a shop and showed me a new world, one filled with the gentle sound of music. I was captivated and drawn to this world. I stayed in the music shop until the end of the day and then reluctantly returned to the home I had made a point to run away from.

Surprisingly, after that incident things got better again. I became friends with the two boys, Len and Kaito, my parents who had been worried to come home only to see I was gone paid more attention to things and started to get along again, even the city streets seemed less bleak to me somehow… yet I still yearned for something. I wanted to go back to that park, to that swing set, to that girl that would always humor my idiocy without much of a care despite how others complained. Despite those feelings, I was under the impression that I would be an adult before I saw her again… until an opportunity revealed itself.

_"Hey, Gakupo, come here!" Kaito yelled, waving his hands frantically._

_I walked over to him and before I could say anything he dumped a bass guitar into my hands._

_"Cha-chan~" Kaito practically sung._

_"Woah! What's this for?" I asked, looking over the instrument._

_"My dad used to be in a band. I was told that it was a lot of fun and that they had lots of fans and stuff! I told him I wanted to form a band when I grew up and, now that I'm the age he was when he started his band, he agreed to let me borrow some instruments for me, you, and Len!" Kaito explained excitedly, "Oh, by the way, Len already called the guitar and I claimed the drums way before I met either of you."_

_"That's right," Len said, poking Kaito in the back of the head as he arrived and joined the conversation, "Also, we're making this simpler by just cutting out the position of vocalist in the band. We've decided we'll all be the singers since it's too troublesome to find another person just to sing… that alright with you, Gakupo?"_

_It's true that there were only three of us and finding a fourth member just to sing would be a pain in the butt. The three of us all had pretty good voices and we could probably manage it if we tried hard enough… it was worth a shot._

_"…I guess that's alright…" I mumbled._

_"Woot!" Kaito yelled, throwing his arms up in the air, "We'll be the best band in our middle school!"_

After that we started to meet up for practice every day. None of us had decided to join any school clubs so it wasn't that hard, though the fact that Kaito took forever to finish his homework did delay our practice sessions. It wasn't hard to meet up, but that didn't mean that we improved any during those practice sessions; in fact, we sucked and we kept sucking because we overlooked the fact that none of us knew to play our instruments and had too much pride to consult a book or ask Kaito's dad for help.

Eventually, Kaito's dad offered to help us after hearing one of our horrendous practice sessions. Despite only being the guitarist he knew how to work the other instruments as well and was a big help. Kaito's mom, who we later learned was also part of the band Kaito's dad had formed, taught us how to compose music and write lyrics. We steadily improved with their help and one day we finally were able to play and write music without their help.

Our first performance would be at one of our school festivals in our 2nd year of middle school. Honestly, we didn't expect anything to come out of it… we just wanted to play our music on a stage even if no one would stop and listen. Imagine our surprise when someone casually approached us and attempted to scout us. It was one of those things you read about all the time, but never expect to happen in reality or, at least, not to you.

We talked about it after we got home and then decided to just roll with it and see how far it would take us. The next day we called the number on the business card that the scout had given us and went to the agency. They took us under their wing and before we knew it we were having our debut concert, winning awards, gaining popularity… it was funny because we actually originally half expected to debut in an empty concert hall and quickly lose our contract, but it turned out we were a success.

Our lives changed to accommodate our new popularity. We were busy most of the time, we couldn't go shopping without someone recognizing us, and fan girls were everywhere… it was a lot to take in and adjusting was difficult, but we did our best to cope. Sadly things didn't work out, many things happened regarding stalking cases and hate mail and the stress built up. We found ourselves snapping at each other and once our agency noticed this they decided we needed a change of pace.

"So… what's this new place like?" Kaito asked while kicking his legs like a little kid.

"Before that we should ask if it even has its own airport…" Len muttered, turning his head to look out the window of our private jet.

"Well, there was this guy that liked airplanes a lot and made his own landing, takeoff strip thing with his land that we kinda thought of as an airport… he probably wouldn't mind us being there…" I mumbled while twiddling my thumbs, hoping the guy still lived there.

"Does that mean you're not sure if we'll even have a place to land?" Kaito asked, his excitement fading to make way for nervousness and anxiety.

"No, I mean… no one tends to move in or out of that town often so he'll be there… probably," I responded.

Len and Kaito sighed and shrugged. It had been decided that we would be moving to a new place due to all the things that had happened. When someone suggested we move to a smaller town rather than stay in the big city I immediately brought up my hometown and shortly after we were told to prepare to move. While I was psyched it was on pretty short notice and we were all pretty tired and had little energy and patience at this point.

"You'll like it there, I mean, it's not the city, but it has its own charms!" I said, "Like… there's a really good ice cream shop! And… they serve banana flavored ice cream too!"

Kaito's eyes sparkled at the mention of ice cream. He turned to Len who let out a small chuckle at the mention of it.

"I know what you're trying to do... and it's alright, you don't need to try to win me over. You already had me hooked when you mentioned that you have a girl there," he teased with a smirk.

"Oh, Luka-chan?" Kaito joined in with a grin, "The beautiful girl with her luscious pink locks and blue eyes that you could stare into forever~?"

"Ugh, lay off it guys…" I muttered, my face turning red, "You guys have never been in love so you have no right to judge me."

"I'm so jealous of this emotion called love you have, give me your unwavering feelings of love, Gakkun!" Kaito cried jokingly.

"I thought you were already in a committed relationship with ice cream! Kaito, how dare you try to take away someone else's love when you're practically already married to the delicious frosty goodness that is ice cream!" I replied dramatically.

"No, you insult my devotion to the sugary treat! I aim to steal your love to give to my beloved so it may become more delicious and sweet and frosty and stuff due to the fluffy emotions!" Kaito cried, "How could you even think for a moment I would betray ice cream for you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but the only thing that came out was laughter. Kaito looked like he was serious about everything he just said and he was even holding a tub of ice cream and stroking it like it was a pet dog or something.

"When did you get that?" I asked after I managed to stop laughing.

"Oh, this tub of ice cream I've got here? Len got it for me when you mentioned my committed relationship," Kaito replied with a grin, "Want to have a taste of my wonderful wife? She's vanilla flavored this time!"

"Nah, I'm good," I replied, "Go ahead and dig in."

"Suit yourself~" Kaito practically sang as he grabbed his spoon and started digging into the tub of ice cream.

"So, Gakupo~" Len said as plopped down in the seat next to me, "I know you've told us all about your childhood sweetheart and how much you love her and how she said she'd wait for you and all that, but… are you sure she still remembers you? You were what… 7?"

"Luka-chan's the type to never forget a promise so I'm sure that she's still waiting for me," I replied, "As for my age… I'm pretty sure I was 6 going on 7. I moved a little before Luka's 6th birthday and I was only a few months older…"

"Ugh, what confidence…" Len muttered, rolling his eyes before shrugging, letting out a sigh, and continuing with, "I'm just saying… you better be prepared just in case she doesn't remember 'cause the last thing we want is to see you crying over lost love, you know? We may tease you a lot, but we're your friends through thick and thin and we care about you."

"Awwwww~!" Kaito and I broke out in unison.

"What?" Len asked with his eyebrows raised.

"You said 'we care about you'!" I said as I jokingly hugged him, "I feel so loved now~"

"Of course we care! Now knock it off!" Len yelled as he tried to kick me off him.

"Let's all feel the love together~!" Kaito said as he joined us in the hug.

"Eww, let go! This is so gross and touchy feely!" Len complained as he continued to struggle against the hug, "Save your love for your girlfriends!"

Kaito and I laughed, not giving Len any room to break free. Sometimes it was fun to mess around like this and it was a welcome thing after all the stress we'd been under. Though, if we valued our lives we would let go soon because despite the fact we were both bigger than Len in stature he could beat us up if he wanted to… he has been taking some kind of martial art since he was young. Whether it was judo, karate, kung-fu, aikido, or whatever, we didn't know. All we knew was that he was a black belt and we had seen his sparring victims. They were very big… and they were very unconscious.

"You two are idiots!" Len hissed when we finally decided to let him go and just continued laughing in our seats.

"You have to admit that it was kinda your fault for saying those words!" I pointed out, "You know how we get when someone says those words ever since we watched that one drama where they dramatically reacted to the words 'I care about you!' as if it was some kind of code word that flipped an internal switch or something."

"Yeah, remember that one episode where the protagonist pounced on the lead guy and they started kissing all of a sudden?" Kaito mentioned, "I know that saying 'I care about you' is good and all, but to go from hating a guy the whole series to loving him after one phrase is weird! I mean, he never even apologized for a lot of the grief and strife and stuff he put her through!"

"I thought we agreed to never bring that drama up again…" Len muttered, "I'm still mentally scarred from all the weird plot twists and relationships that went on in there! Like, 'I'm your long lost brother!' or 'I'm actually… your mother! Your father had an affair with me and you mom is not your real mom so you half-brother is actually not related to you at all so you can date him!' Like, really now? I know it's a fictional story and that they can do whatever they want, but that hurt my brain."

"Why did we watch that drama anyway? Even I regret watching it…" I muttered.

"I think some idiot at our elementary school dared us to watch the whole series and we actually went through with it," Len replied, "We rented the DVDs for all three seasons and had a movie marathon with popcorn and soda. At the end of it Kaito had gone through three boxes of tissue because of dying people admitting things they'd done wrong to their children while on the brink of death and all three of us were scarred for life."

"On the bright side, he bet 3,000 yen that we couldn't so we got 3,000 yen after winning!" Kaito reminded us, "We split it three ways and bought a bunch of candy with it at Daiso!"

"Oh yeah, we bought some Apollo chocolates, melon pan, pocky, and some chips and stuff then chowed down on all of it and ran around Kaito's house all day hyped up on sugar," I recalled out loud.

"The crash though! We didn't even make it back to the futons!" Len added with a grin forming on his face, "Kaito's dad had to carry all of us up to Kaito's room so that the customers would stop screaming 'Oh my god, there's a dead kid on the floor!' or 'Are you alright?' along with a lot of other things I was too sleepy to register."

"Those were the days, huh?" Kaito mumbled.

"Weren't they? We were free and happy and just… us," Len replied, "Now we're stuck on billboards in the city and people have their own images of us. It's common to hear people say, 'you're not who I thought you were,' now and it really bugs me because we didn't try to give them any kind of image, they came up with it on their own!"

"Isn't that why we're moving though?" I cut in, "Somewhere where fewer people know us, a nice less densely populated place where we can relax and just be us."

"Then what do we do about all our live shows?" Kaito asked, tilting his head.

"Ask Meiko about that, she's the one that should be managing our schedule," Len said as he pointed a finger in the direction where we could hear snores coming from.

"Figures she'd be passed out, she's been drinking sake since we reached cruising altitude…" I muttered.

"We haven't even been in the air that long!" Kaito whined, "Japan's just a small island country!"

"What do we do when we land then? Do we have to drag her out and hitch a ride with someone since she's obviously too drunk to drive?" I asked.

"Probably," Kaito and Len muttered irately.

"If we're lucky, she'll sober in time," Kaito offered me weakly, "She sobers pretty quickly and we can probably get away with her driving as long we don't get stopped by a police officer."

"I'm not taking that chance, Japan has narrow roads and I really don't feel like crashing into a building today just 'cause that drunk couldn't turn," Len grumbled.

"We could always walk to the house, I mean, it's not like it's that far out…" I suggested.

"True, we could just leave a note and walk off," Len mumbled, seeming to actually consider it.

"In the end I'm going to end up giving her a piggy-back ride all the way there though, aren't I?" Kaito asked sheepishly.

Len shrugged, "Up to you, your childhood friend, babysitter person, your problem!" he replied.

"It's not like I wanted such a drunk for a childhood friend and a manager…" Kaito complained as we heard the beginning of an announcement.

At that moment the captain announced that we were landing and that we should buckle our seat belts. We obliged and Meiko even managed to wake up and do it herself. We slowly felt the plane descend back to earth and didn't unbuckle our seat belts until the captain said it was okay.

"Uncle! I'm so glad you still live here!" I yelled as I practically jumped out of the jet and hugged the nice guy that ran the local makeshift airport.

"Welcome home, Gakupo!" he said, laughing at how happy I seemed to be, "Your hair grew even longer, I thought you were a girl for a minute!"

"Hey, that's rude! I still look like a guy!" I huffed, taking a moment to turn around and watch Len, Kaito, and a half-awake Meiko make their way off the plane with their luggage.

"See, I told you guys that we'd be alright!" I said.

"Are you sure about that?" Len asked, "Weren't you the one that said probably with very little confidence?"

"Oh, shush, we made it and that's what matters!" I broke in cheerily as I picked up my suitcase and started walking toward a car.

"So, what're we gonna do?" Kaito called after me.

"Uncle, do you mind driving us to my old house?" I asked, sparkles in my eyes and everything.

"I don't really mind…" he replied.

"Then it's settled!" I cheered, "Into the car guys!"

"He got really cheery after we landed…" Len whispered to Kaito loudly enough for me to hear.

"I know, right? He's probably psyched to be where Luka-chan is!" Kaito whispered back.

"Ugh, I know you're doing that on purpose!" I yelled, "If you get it then hurry up and get over here! Oh, and help Meiko too, she looks lost."

After everyone got into the car we drove in silence for a few minutes until we reached the house we would be using from today on, the house I used to live in as a kid. We quickly got out and thanked the kind uncle for getting us there before grabbing our stuff and waving good-bye as we headed into the house.

"Most of the furniture is going to get here by tomorrow… the movers will set it up… today you'll be sleeping on futons…" Meiko mumbled sleepily, "For now unpack and relax or whatever, I'm going to go take a nap…"

We watched her sprawl out on the floor and go back to sleep. While she did drink often she seemed to know her limits, but lately even she'd been getting stressed and drinking more. Usually we only had to deal with this once a week, but it'd turned into about five days a week without us knowing.

"Well… what do we do now?" Kaito asked as he draped a blanket over Meiko's sleeping form.

"I guess… we go out for ice cream?" Len suggested, "It's not like there's anything we can really do here right now 'cause the TV and game stations and all of that stuff don't come in until tomorrow."

"But Kaito just had ice cream," I pointed out.

"Another scoop wouldn't hurt him," Len replied, "I mean, he ate around five tubs in one day once, a tub and a scoop won't do any more harm than that did."

"Ice cream~" Kaito sang, jumping around excitedly like a kid.

"I'd like to try out the banana ice cream," Len said with a grin.

"Alright, we can go, might as well pick up some bento from the convenience store for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast on the way back too," I said as I rolled my suitcase to the side so Meiko wouldn't trip on it when she got up.

We quickly walked out and down the familiar streets. I would point out places I used to go to as a kid to Kaito and Len and watch as they took it all in. They seemed to enjoy it or at least they didn't seem to hate it. I think the blooming cherry blossoms intrigued them because Kaito looked at them with wide eyes and enjoyed catching fluttering petals on the way down. Len and I joined in and we had a competition to see who could catch the most petals. In the end, Kaito won after catching a whole cherry blossom.

"I've never seen so many pink flowers," Kaito said happily as he twirled around under the falling cherry blossoms.

"True, you don't see a lot of them in the city…" Len mumbled in agreement as he caught another petal as it was fluttering down, "they're pretty cute."

"See, this place has its charms too!" I chipped in with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah, how I feel about this place still depends on how good that banana-flavored ice cream tastes," Len replied jokingly.

Eventually we made it to the ice cream shop and took a seat outside after receiving our ice cream. We took our time and ate slowly because we knew that Meiko wouldn't be waking up soon.

"This is actually really good," Len said as he licked his ice cream.

Kaito and I jokingly cheered and Len simply ignored us and went back to eating his ice cream. Kaito and I did the same and when we finished we made a trip to the convenience store.

"I want this!" Kaito said, showing us a random sundae he'd picked up from somewhere.

"Kaito, no, put that back," I said.

"But it's on sale!" he said.

"No!" Len and I yelled in response.

"Fine, you guys are no fun!" Kaito pouted as he put the sundae back where he found it.

Kaito joined us at the counter after picking out a bento for himself and another for Meiko and we paid for everything together.

"I don't see why Meiko was allowed to get Alfort chocolates when I can't get a sundae," Kaito complained on the way home.

"If you hadn't already eaten a tub of ice cream then you could've gotten the sundae," Len replied, "Anyway… look at that."

We followed the direction his finger was pointing and noticed the sun setting.

"Woah!" Kaito exclaimed, "I can see it clearly, no buildings or anything!"

"It's nice, isn't it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah…" Len and Kaito responded, big smiles on their faces.

"Well, let's hurry home and eat dinner, I'm starving!" I said as I pushed them in the direction of the house.

Later we found out that after dinner all we could really do was sleep, but it felt too early to do that so we stayed up and talked for a while about things like what we'd do about school the following day, what classes we'd have, and other things. Of course, Len and Kaito teased me about Luka again, but it didn't really bother me; in fact, it reminded me that I was where she was and maybe I would get to meet her again.

* * *

**Congratulations, you've finished chapter 2 and lived through the randomness! Actually, I went to Japan in April, didn't get to go to a lot of places because my teacher was a poor planner, but I went. I didn't really learn much about school systems and stuff, but I did get a lot of cheap Japanese manga and candy! I love Apollos so much~. Seven Eleven in Japan has this sundae and my friend bought it and he acted like he was drunk after he had it for fun. It was the weirdest night of my life 'cause only four out of ten of us stayed up in that room where you eat and talk to other people in the hostel and we were all laughing like we were drunk because of my friend. Ahem, ignore my rambling, it's like 7 in the morning and I don't really know what I'm saying. **

**Thanks for reading! Did you enjoy it? You don't have to review, but remember that reviews make authors happy and happy authors are productive authors.**

**R&R for free Seven Eleven sundaes~ *throws digital seven eleven sundaes* Don't drive after eating~ :U**


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